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Not long ago, I was attending Mass at the parish where I was baptized. After Mass, I picked up a bulletin, out of habit and out of curiosity to see what had been going on at this parish since I had been there last. It turned out that week the priest administrator of the parish had an important reminder for the congregation: When coming to confession at the parish, Catholics had better get there before confessions began. Confession time would end precisely according to schedule; anyone left...

My son Joshua recently celebrated his first Penance in anticipation of his first Holy Communion. He is the first of our five children to do so. Needless to say, it was a very special day for him and our family. As I mentioned in my last blog post, over the last few years he has expressed a true desire to partake of these sacraments. My wife and I have done our best to help him and his sibling to understand the beauty, meaning, and power of the sacraments, and whenever possible have used...

Do you know just how hard it is to go to Mass once a week and on a handful more days each year? Judging by the questions the apologists at Catholic Answers receive on the subject, you would think that trying to find a Catholic church at which a Catholic can attend Mass is as difficult a venture as manned space flight to Mars.

When I first started answering this question, I assured each questioner that if it is truly impossible to get to a church for Mass on a Sunday or holy day of...

A textbook used for confirmation preparation in a parish in California teaches students that the sacrament of confirmation “only came into existence in the third century” and that “there was no sacrament of penance in the early church”. I suppose such sacramental ignorance is not surprising given that a deacon who instructs catechists in the same diocese teaches that at one time there were only two sacraments and, at another time, twenty two.